Real-Talk...Nidalee
tl;dr I want to discuss Nidalee changes and current state due to jungle passive add-in and how it affects her in other lanes.
So throughout my time in League of Legends I've noticed a lot of changes concerning Nidalee. She has been played in many different roles, and has been through many changes herself. While I can see why people do not like playing against Nidalee, I'd like to address some topics that I personally would like other opinions on, but first I'd like to share mine.
Before Nidalee Jungle: Pre-Nid jungle was a great time for Nidalee players. I felt as though she was in a good state, had her trade offs, and was not receiving too much hate from others. What many people tend to forget is Nidalee couldn't (and no longer can) spam 7 spears and afford to miss most of them because she would be out of mana way too quickly, unless you stack a tear which many don't. That was a fantastic change in the right direction, I completely agree that spamming spears at a low mana cost was toxic due to the amount of damage she did. I feel as though Riot moved in the right direction by making a large portion of her damage into her cougar form, and forced her to utilize it in order to be successful. These changes have really moved Nidalee into a better place and removed her from her perma-ban state in ranked. She has counter play with her pounce, and is prevented from spear spam, which were Nidalee's biggest problems (aside from the huge heal way back when). This left Nidalee players with a fun and interactive champion that, while very versatile, was in a decent state.
Post Nidalee Jungle: For those of you who don't know, Nidalee received a buff(?) to her passive, allowing her to Hunt passive monsters. While I enjoyed being able to secure blue buff and dragons, I did not expect a huge backlash of the rise of Nidalee in the jungle. Hindsight is 20/20 and I realize her kit exceeds extremely well in the jungle. Due to the fact that Nidalee, once again, succeeded very well in her role, now the jungle, Riot nerfed specific points in her kit to reel her back from her outstanding oppressiveness. These nerfs included base health and health per level nerfs, as well as removal of %health damage on her trap, replaced with a .2 AP ratio. Riot even mentioned that Nidalee was still a hot topic in terms of jungle, which really scares me in terms of nerf potential.
My opinion: I have played Nidalee for quite a long time, and have enjoyed her throughout many of her changes. While I feel Riot was moving in the right direction with her changes, I completely dislike the passive change. I feel as though we took one step forward and two steps back. Once her new passive was introduced she once again rose to popularity and became, yet again, "THE MOST F*CKIN TOXIC CHAMP EVER OMG". I feel as though balancing Nidalee in two lanes, top and mid, was very difficult. With the introduction of her new role in the jungle, balancing must be a living hell. When you target one area of a certain role, it possibly has major effects in others because each role is so individual. For example, AD Nidalee top tends to become a bruiser that tanks and dishes out some nice damage, but with the new reduced health at level 1 and every level after, she loses a total of 200 health at level 18, which may not seem drastic to a jungle Nidalee, but to a bruiser that leaves them weaker. Juggling all her roles and making them each healthy is a near impossible task, in my opinion, and will only end up frustrating many players. While I do understand that not as many people play Nidalee Mid or Top anymore, I don't think it's fair for those players that do to endure changes to their playstyles based on her success in different positions. I do agree that we need more AP-based junglers, and honestly Nidalee jungle is quite fun, but I don't believe freeing her up to every role is the right way to handle it. I think Riot should focus on making an AP-based junglers instead of transforming a relatively healthy champion into one.
This post is merely for discussion, I am really excited to hear how others view Nidalee because my opinion is obviously biased due to the fact that I main her. Before you decide to post I'd just like you to ponder how you'd feel if your favorite champion/main was in Nidalee's position, that is, was offered a new position and nerfed due to their success in that position. I ask that we not have a Nidalee hate party, just mere conversation on her =). Thanks for reading!
